Monday, October 20, 2008
Keeping Up with the Jones: Norah Goes Under the Radar at Rockwood
Jazz-singer extraordinaire Norah Jones played a surprise set of old country and rockabilly tunes at the Rockwood Music Hall on Saturday night. An attentive crowd of hip olds spilled out into the street to hear her strum and sing Cash covers with an all-girl acoustic three-piece at the tiny venue. After the set, the pixyish phenom, her hair dyed blonde and closely cropped, cheerfully drank at the bar with some friends.
"I agreed to play the space because it's so exposed, unless you hit a clam," she said. A clam is a bad note? "Yeah, it is!" the answer came with a charming giggle. She pantomimed flubbing a note on an air acoustic. "It's all about learning how to play guitar," the singer—whose dad is sitar god Ravi Shankar—said. "This is how I learned how to play piano, in small clubs," she went on to say. And that worked out pretty well.
I had taken up enough of her time, but now she had a slight favor to ask of me. "I'm trusting you to be cool, even though I don't know you," she said, looking me in the eyes and smiling. If I mentioned the name of the band it would blow her cover. Okay, I'm cool. I didn't feel too cool at the moment though, sensing my cheeks blush. "No one cares about me these days anyway," she said shrugging, her cheeks reddening now. She looked around the room and added, "these are basically my friends." She wins them over fast.
Gray haired singer Brandon Wilde's Britpop-style band, Black Bunny, followed Norah. The vocalist—nattily turned out in a black vest and tie—admitted he had gotten wind of the gig earlier that day as he handed a young female fan his big Gretsch to strap to her back, he said with a shrug, "I was just worried that my friends wouldn't be able to get in, but everything was cool."
http://ftl.nypress.com/blogx/display_blog.cfm?bid=42071409